(SportsRadio 610) - It’s game week and the Texans spent the first portion of workouts Monday doing walk-throughs on both offense and defense before breaking into a special teams period to work on punt returns.
Following practice, DeMeco Ryans told NFL Network’s Tom Pelisserro that CJ Stroud will be the starting quarterback for Thursday night’s preseason opener against the New England Patriots.
Although now that it has been made official, it’s been obvious throughout the last three practices that Stroud was going to be the guy.
He was running with ones again as anticipated to start Monday’s practice. Teams don’t give first-team reps to a guy and then not play him, especially during a game week.
The Texans really seemed to emphasize the run game during and early portion of 11-on-11.
Running back Devin Singletary got the first handoff today. While right tackle George Fant got the first reps with the ones with Tytus Howard sidelined to do a broken thumb/hand.
Dare Ogunbowale got first carry with second team unit with Davis Mills under center and Mike Boone got the first carry with Case Keenum running the third team.
CJ Stroud’s first pass in the team period was to Tank Dell, who ran an intermediate out-route. It was a really good catch he made while falling out of bounds gaining about 20 yards.
I watched the quarterbacks closely during individual drills today.
CJ’s ball comes out different, compared to Mills or Keenum. It has a little wobble to it more times than not and doesn’t have that tilt on intermediate to deep throws.
Mechanically he’s operating differently than Mills or the seasoned veteran Keenum. While he gets the ball out quickly, his mechanics are different, and it doesn’t appear that he’s really adept at shifting his weight yet. It could be something to keep an eye on. However, he’s making the right reads and decisions, is getting the ball to his receivers on time, and that’s what counts.
During the second round of 11-on-11, Stroud was nearly picked by linebacker Christian Harris who couldn’t hold on to ball after jumping out route. Harris has really been fun to watch this camp, he’s all over the place.
Wide receiver Jalen camp made some nice catches in the red zone from Davis Mills. Camp has been very consistent this training camp.
Second year offensive tackle Austin Deculus got some reps with the first team offense at right tackle today. He spelled and rotated with Tyler Beach for Fant in the latter stages of practice during a scrimmage period.
He looked good. Deculus made a great initial block at the line on a play action, but struggled to hold his block on the second level. It’s a timing and angle of attack thing that he’ll need to work on.
Cornerback Derek Stingley continued to flash. He made a nice play, batting a ball down on an out-route, intended for Robert Woods.
Woods lined up on the left side the very next play and got great separation from Steven Nelson to make a nice catch on an intermediate out-route.
Nico Collins made a couple of nice catches on some underneath crossing routes toward the end of practice.
Davis Mills didn’t take a single rep during the last 15-20 minutes of team period.
Houston, you’ve officially got a new starting quarterback.
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